﻿False Fight Club

By Thomas Vallez, Hwa Rang Do & A.P.

The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.

South Carolina: Detectives with the Horry County Police Department's Violent Crimes Section have arrested 15 people, ranging in age from 14 to 22, and are searching for five others in connection to a 02/05/2010 lynching, which resulted in homicide.

Officers with the Horry County Police Department were dispatched to an address on Peachtree Road just before 11 p.m. last Friday in reference to a reports of serious fighting. After arrival to the scene, investigators learned 20 people came to a residence, flashed a number of pistols and assaulted a male victim.

Sgt. Robert Kegler says the victim was able to alert his parents to the crowd gathered outside of the residence. When the parents approached the suspects, pistols were aimed at the mother and father, despite a shotgun being in possession of the mother.

When the Police arrived at the home, the victim and the victim's parents told officers approximately 20 people assaulted the victim and pointed several firearms at him. He was able to alert his parents, who then confronted the crowd.

According to the police report, the suspects immediately fled the scene in their vehicles while shooting their firearms in the air.

The second rule of Fight Club is: you do NOT talk about Fight Club.

The Police Department's Violent Crimes Section were able to investigate and identify 20 individuals who were present during the fight and that the people were members of a local fight club.

According to investigators, the fight stemmed from a disagreement between the victim and the members of the group.
Two of the suspects identified, Cody Vance Warren, 20, and Jason Alexander, 22, were linked to two prior home invasions in Socastee.

All 15 were charged with lynching and presenting a firearm. The 11 being tried as adults were transported to the J. Reuben Long Detention Center. The four minors were released into the custody of their parents. Police are still searching for five suspects: Warren, Akiem Davis, 19; William Roy Lovell, 18; Kassidy Anderson, 16; and an unnamed juvenile.

The five fugitives are wanted for lynching and presenting a firearm.

Fourth rule: only two guys to a fight.

Approximately 20 individuals also invaded a home during a related incident in Socastee, South Carolina, attacked the residents and fired guns. The residents were forced onto the ground and guns shoved into their faces by members of the same suspected fight club.

Those arrested in Socastee, South Carolina also ranged in age from 16 years old to 22. The members are said to be associated with area high schools and other fight clubs are also believed to exist.

Fifth rule: one fight at a time, fellas.

Fight clubs have become an underground entity since the popular movie “Fight Club” starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton hit the screen in 1999. In the movie, an office employee numbed by modern society develops schizophrenia and unloads chaos on society through an alter-ego.

To combat the duldrum of society, fight clubs are often started so individuals can possibly feel like they may revitalize their stagnating lives. As the clubs progress, they sometimes turn into a semi-militant organization aimed at taking down “the system” and even innocent bystanders who get in the way or are challenged in overly competitive matches.

Sixth rule: no shirts, no shoes.

Although similar gang-related mentalities, once banded together, may produce such negative behaviour...it now seems like fight clubs are more often a breeding ground for direct physical violence against its other members...or even towards innocent bystanders.

Seventh Rule: Fights will go on as long as they have to.

Frequent gang-related activities have long plagued many urban and rural areas. Law enforcement agencies in most major cities have created special crime-fighting units in futile attempts to combat the continual rise in these criminal occurances. However, more often it seems that Police officers are increasingly outgunned and under-manned for such a huge task.

And the Eighth & final rule: If this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight.

False fight clubs are on the rise, bringing with them a threatening gang mentality, causing violent episodes in various regions within the United States and other parts of the world!